Cultural diversity, creativity and innovation for development: forging new alliances in South East Europe

The UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe, Venice (Italy), is organizing, together with the Culturelink Network - Institute for Development and International Relations and the Centre for Democracy and Law Miko Tripalo, with the support of the City of Zagreb, the Croatian National Commission for UNESCO and the Ministry of Culture of Croatia, an international conference on “Cultural Diversity, Civil Society and International Cultural Cooperation in South-East Europe” to be held on 3-4 June 2013 in Zagreb.

The conference will bring together experts, researchers as well as policy makers and national points of contact for the 2005 Convention, and analyze the integration of cultural diversity into a wide framework of public policies in South East Europe (SEE). It will discuss, in particular, the status of implementation and monitoring of UNESCO's Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005), on the basis of the quadrennial periodic reports sent to UNESCO by 48 UNESCO member states members to the Convention including the European Commission and, from the SEE region, Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Montenegro, Slovenia.

The conference will take place in four thematic round-tables, each focusing on 4 different levels of intervention: policy-advice and planning, information sharing, operational, partnerships and civil society. The themes retained are: Integrating Cultural Diversity in Sustainable Development Policies; Promoting Cultural Policies; Strengthening the Diversity of Cultural Expressions; and, Promoting Mobility and Engaging Civil Society.

Speakers and participants will discuss and look at strategies for the integration of culture in development plans, innovative examples of integrated governance of culture in SEE, and new ways of designing creative forms of bilateral and multilateral cooperation. They will analyze information received and discuss specific challenges in compiling the national reports, as well as in sharing information and lessons learnt about them. Non-governmental organizations from South-East Europe recipients of the International Fund for Cultural Diversity (ICPD) in 2011/2013 will present major achievements and challenges in the implementation of their projects and activities in the field of cultural policy and cultural industries. And finally, the conference will address the role of civil society in promoting the diversity of cultural expressions, the relevance of coalitions for cultural diversity in the countries and the new forms of civil society participation.